Committee of Voters of Ukraine has begun a petition against the “imperative mandate”

The civic organization “The Committee of Voters of Ukraine” is collecting signatures against the recent law on “imperative mandate” (which gives political blocs and factions the right to remove electoral mandate from deputies at local level who change political sides). 

The action was announced on 15 February by the Chair of the Transcarpathian branch of the CVU, Yaroslav Fryndak. He explains that the CVU believes that the new law considerably strengthens the influence of the party leadership on tens of thousands of deputies of local councils and effectively makes them dependent on the will of several individuals.

Since the law does not provide an exhaustive list of grounds for terminating a deputy’s mandate, the top management of the party can deprive a person of their deputy mandate for any reason. The passing of such a law will be a step back in the development of democracy in Ukraine in general, and first and foremost local self government. The CVU asserts that this will still further distance deputies of local councils from the voters.

Mr Fryndak stated that the CVU was calling on all aware citizens of Ukraine to add their signatures to an appeal to the President to use his constitutional right of veto on the law. The signatures will be submitted to the Verkhovna Rada with a call to not defeat the President’s veto.